Our Year
by music04goddess
Summary: Bella is starting her first year at college with her best friend and roommate, Alice. A story about friendship, love, and family. All human. Rated M for future lemons.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Stephanie Meyer.**

 **So I hope everyone enjoys this. Please review and let me know what you think! I'm always open to criticism, just nothing too nasty please.**

First day at a new school. What could really go wrong? I sighed and looked around. So, I've never been on a college campus before, I don't know where any of my classes are or even the building they're in, and I don't know what time my friends will be at lunch. It will all be fine!

"Hey, Bella! Wait up, we can walk together!"

I turned around and found the most amazing person alive in this moment. "Oh Alice, you don't know what happy I am to see you. Do we have Literature together?" I asked as I glanced down at my schedule.

Alice fished out her class schedule and smiled, "Literature. 10:00 AM. Room 204F. That must be the Fisher building. That's the class you have next, right?"

I nodded in agreement and looped my arm through my best friend's, "Ally, you are a lifesaver."

Alice giggled and fell into step beside me, "Honey, we are just getting started. I have a feeling that this is going to be our year."

Alice and I made it to Literature seconds before our professor closed the door. We grabbed the last two seats in the back and pulled out our books.

Our professor walked to the front of the room and quietly observed everyone. "Everyone in this room is on this college campus for the first time. For almost every one of you, it is the first time you have been on any college campus. I want you to know now that it is going to be very different from high school. You will not be able to put off studying until the night before. You will not be able to skip class and come out with an A. You will study. You will be present. You will participate. And it won't be easy."

Alice looked at me with wide eyes and whispered, "What have we walked into?"

"You will, however, enjoy every minute of it," our professor continued. "Now, let's all get to know each other."

After listening to everyone tell their life stories in a matter of seconds, it was down to Alice and myself. Alice smiled and stood up. "Hey, everyone. My name is Alice Brandon, and I am 18, like most of you are. I am an art major with hopes of going into graphic design."

Alice finished and smiled at me as she sat down. I sighed and stood up. Public speaking was one of my biggest fears. "My name is Bella. Bella Swan. I am also 18 years old. I don't have any siblings. I am a music major. Vocal performance. I'm going to be music education eventually."

After I sat down, our professor walked back to the front of the room, and class began. I could feel the blush on my face from talking in front of a crowded room. I took a few deep breathes and felt Alice squeeze my hand under the table. I glanced up and nodded to let her know that I am okay. First introduction down, many to go.

XxXxX

I'm an introvert. That's the easiest way to say it. I don't like crowds or being around people all the time. I love having "Bella time." All the time. I'm awkward and uncomfortable around other people, but I guess that's what it's good for me to have Alice. She's outgoing and loves being in the middle of the crowd. She is the one that gets me to do anything, and without her, I would have missed out on a lot in life already.

After Literature, Alice went off for some of her art classes, and I headed toward the music building. We had a large choral ensemble that met at noon, and I was dreading having to introduce myself there. Like I said, I don't do well in crowds.

I walked into the building and froze in amazement of the chapel. The ceiling was high and domed, perfect for bouncing voices around. The organ in the back went from the floor to the ceiling and had intricate detailing along the pipes. Risers had already been set up on the stage and people were everywhere. Talking, laughing, and hugging after the summer of not seeing each other.

I walked over to a chair and put my bag down. I noticed a girl from my Literature class and made my way over to her. I smiled when I got close. "Hey. I'm Bella. We have Literature together."

"Oh, yes! Hi, Bella. I'm Jessica. I was worried that I would be the only one not talking to someone," she replied with a laugh.

I smiled and took the seat beside her, "I know exactly how you feel. I don't think I recognize anyone else in-" I cut off, interrupted.

"Hello, everyone! Welcome to our first choral rehearsal of the semester!" I looked up to find our director standing on the stage by the large grand piano. "First things first. Introductions! I know that most of you know each other, but we have some new faces."

Everyone went to the risers and took a seat. Jessica and I followed behind them and sat beside each other. One by one, the 60 people in the choral group began to introduce themselves. Every so often, everyone would laugh at what someone said, and it was obvious that this group had a multitude of inside jokes. One guy, in particular, seemed to stand out.

He wasn't the tallest, or the most attractive, but I there was something about him that I found myself drawn to. He was a senior, and everyone appeared to like him. He stood up on his turn and smiled at everyone. "Well, I'm Edward. As most of you already know. I'm a senior this year and beyond ready to be done with school. I'm going to graduate school for composition. And that's about it for my exciting life," he ended with a small laugh. He wasn't the tallest guy, but he was definitely one of the nicest.

"Hey, Edward? How is Tanya doing, by the way?" One of the juniors asked as Edward started to sit down.

"Uh, she's alright I guess. She's in South Carolina and doing alright," Edward stammered.

A girlfriend maybe? Everyone except the freshman seemed to know who this Tanya girl was, and everyone seemed to really like her. Of course the guy everyone liked would be dating a girl that everyone liked.

The guy behind Edward stood up then to introduce himself. He was huge. The guy was all muscle and definitely did not look like someone that you would find in a choral setting. "Hey guys. I'm Emmett. Senior year. Ready to be done like my best guy, Edward. And that's about all. Oh yeah, don't forget to swing by the theater tonight. Percussion has a great show going on, and I'll be there killing it on the drums." Emmett sat down as everyone laughed and mentioned that they would be there.

Everyone else introduced themselves, and I managed to get through my introduction without stuttering too many times. Our first rehearsal went really well, and I found out that Edward had an amazing bass voice. He is definitely one of the best in the group, but I might have found myself being a little biased. Throughout the rehearsal I found myself glancing in that direction. Something just drew me toward him, but I knew that it was nothing that I would ever act on.

XxXxX

The rest of the day went by without a problem. I had a couple more classes before I was able to get back to my dorm room. I walked in to find Alice already seated on my bed. She immediately jumped up when I walked in the room, "I have been waiting on you forever!"

I laughed and sat down, pulling her with me, "Ali, I saw you in class this morning. What happened?"

"I need to hear all about your day! Nothing too exciting happened for me, so I'm hoping you had more excitement."

I shook my head, "You're going to be extremely disappointed then. My day was a bore, too."

"Well just tell me about it anyway. How was the rehearsal for that singing whatever thing you do?"

"The choral rehearsal? Oh it was fine. There are a lot of people in it for how small this school is. Everyone seemed really nice, and the space is amazing. We sound great," I told Alice with a smile.

We talked about the rest of our classes, comparing who had the worst professors. After we made it through the day, we decided to make a movie day out the rest of the afternoon. Alice and I grabbed the junk food and laid back for the movie. I don't what this year is going to bring, but I know that so far, I think it might just be alright.

 **So, I hope everyone enjoyed that! Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.**

 **I want always get to update this quickly, but I finally got a good start on a general outline for this story, so I wanted to get chapter 2 up! Please, please review! I would love to know what everyone is thinking! And I just want to clear one thing before I get started. In the last chapter, I wrote "He wasn't the tallest, or the most attractive…" in reference to Edward. I don't mean that he was short and ugly. Edward is about 5'9" and is still an attractive man. All I meant by this was that he was more in the normal range instead of being the perfect man that some other stories make him out to be. I want these characters to just be your fairly average college students. I hope you guys enjoy!**

 _Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._

I groaned and rolled over to turn off the alarm clock. No matter how old you are, it never gets easier to wake up and get to class by 8 AM. I glanced over to Alice's bed and noticed that she wasn't there. I sat and looked around, confused as to where the little pixie could be in our impossibly small dorm room. I almost jumped out of my skin when the door burst open to our room and Alice walked in.

"Good morning, sunshine!" Alice sang as she turned on the fluorescent light and dropped a bagel on my bed.

"Alice, why can't you just be a normal, grumpy person in the morning?" I whined as I laid back down on the bed.

Alice went over to our desk and started putting on her makeup, "Because, silly. It's a gorgeous day! Now wake up and get in the shower. You don't need to be late when it's still only the first week of class."

I grumbled, but got out of bed and headed toward the shower. I knew she was right, but damn my bed was comfortable this morning. I grabbed some decent clothes out of my closet and picked up my toiletries to get in the shower. Luckily, we only have to share a bathroom with the two girls that live on the other side, and they don't have any early classes.

I got in the shower and felt myself beginning to wake up with the hot water hitting me. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back, enjoying the warmth.

"So, Bella. I was thinking that we should go do something tonight after classes."

I opened my eyes and peeked out of the side of the shower curtain, "What the hell are you doing in here, Alice? I'm in the shower!"

Alice laughed and turned around to face me, "It's not anything I haven't seen before. Calm down, prude."

"Whatever, Ali. What did you have in mind for tonight?" I've learned it's better to just not argue with Alice. And I guess that she is right. When someone is your best friend for as long as Alice has been mine, there isn't much that you haven't seen of each other.

"I don't know. We could take a drive around and see what there is to do here. We're kind of in the middle of nowhere, but there has to be something all of the students do for fun, right?"

"Yeah, that sounds fine, Alice. I'm done with my classes at 4 today, so whenever you want to go, just let me know."

Luckily, Alice left me in peace after that. I love the girl, but I'm used to having time to myself in the morning. She's a ball of energy that I'm not sure I'll ever really get used to in the mornings.

XxXxX

After I made it through my first class, I decided that I really needed to get a job. My dad told me that I should spend my first year just having fun and not worrying about money, but it would help us both out of I had a little bit of income. I overheard some people in my class talking about student worker positions, so I went on the school's website to read about them. If I could find a department that was hiring student workers, I could apply with the head of that department. If I got hired, I would do anything that the faculty needed finished, but I would be able to do any of my homework while we were slow. They would also be very flexible with me when it came to my classes because it would be my professors that I was working for. Since I knew that most of my time would be spent in the music department, that is the first place I would check for openings.

My last class of the day let out early, at 3:00, so I decided to head over to the music department. I wasn't sure what time the department head left for the day, so I was just hoping that maybe he would still be in his office. When I got there, the department was filled with music majors waiting for afternoon classes. I still didn't really know any of them, and I tried to get by without having to stop and have any awkward conversations with them.

"Bella, hey! What are you doing down here?"

I turned around and found Jessica sitting in one of the chairs. "Oh, I was just checking to see if Dr. Smith was in his office," I told her with a smile.

She made her way over to me so we didn't have to talk so loudly, "I don't think that he is. I'll head over there with you and check though. I was getting bored just sitting around waiting for my next class."

"Okay, thanks. I was going to see if he was planning on hiring any more student workers. I know that he keeps the ones from last year."

"I think I overheard him telling someone that they need two new workers, but I'm not positive about it. What are you doing later today?" Jessica asked, turning towards me.

"My roommate, Alice, and I were planning on driving around a little and figuring out where there is to do in this little town. Would you want to come with us?"

"Yeah, sure! Could my roommate come too? She's pretty cool."

I smiled and nodded. Jessica quickly left for her class after that, so I headed down the hallway to see if Dr. Smith was in his office.

I rounded the corner and smiled when I saw him sitting at his desk. "Dr. Smith? Could have a minute?"

He looked up and smiled, waving me inside, "Sure thing! What can I do for you, Ms. Swan?"

After a short conversation about student workers, I was handed an application packet and told to stop back by with it tomorrow and I would know something soon. I thanked him for helping, and decided I should go find Alice to let her know about Jessica and her roommate that we had to meet up with later.

I was about to head up the stairs, when I heard someone call my name. I turned around and found of the girls from the choral group walking towards me. "Hey, Bella. Some of us from the department are going to go out to eat at this really great Mexican restaurant later today. Do you want to go with us?"

"Oh, thanks. Umm…I'm actually going somewhere with my roommate and a couple other people tonight. Thanks for asking, though," I told her with a small smile.

She smiled and shook her head, "Ok, that's fine! I just wanted to ask. Every now and then a lot of the music majors go out to eat or play games or something. Maybe you can join us next time."

I smiled and agreed before leaving to find Alice. I almost ran into Edward at the top of the stairs and stammered out an apology.

He laughed and shook his head, "It's all good. Bella, right? I'm Edward. Are you going with everyone to eat tonight?"

I smiled and explained that I had plans already. I really wished now that I was able to go since Edward made it seem like he was going. From everything I've heard about him, he's a really nice and funny guy.

"Bummer. Maybe you'll get to go with us next time! It's really a lot of fun," he said with a smile.

"I hope so," I told him truthfully.

Edward and I said our goodbyes and I left to go find Alice. I ran into her right before I made it back to our dorm room, and she squealed when she saw me.

"Bella! I met the perfect guy! I've got to tell you all about him!" She yelled as she grabbed my arm.

I laughed and calmed Alice down until we got to our room. "Okay," I smiled, "Tell me all about this guy."

 **Please review! I know this was kind of just a filler chapter, but I promise things will pick up soon. Alice will tell Bella all about her perfect guy in the next chapter. Please let me know what you think.**


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